How can I use mod_rewrite to redirect to index.php except for assets?

Question

I would like to have mod_rewrite go into effect for any filenames that don't exists except if that file name ends with js, css, gif, etc., so those would return regular 404s...

I tried this out:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(js|ico|gif|jpg|png|css|pdf)$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} favicon.ico$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

Which I found online somewhere, but it doesn't seem to work. My non existant JS files still get routed to my index.php file.

Answer 1

Have you added the commands that go before the .htaccess file? Like this line?

RewriteEngine On

Answer 2

Try this rule:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule !.*\.(js|ico|gif|jpg|png|css|pdf)$ /index.php%{REQUEST_URI} [L]

Answer 3

You might want to use the [NC] flag on the first line if you can have not only .js files but also .Js or .JS or .jS files...